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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25788457">engine power</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KestralWatcher/pseuds/KestralWatcher'>KestralWatcher</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>saving space [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Background immortal husbands, Canon Compliant, Found Family, Gen, Immortality, Joe has opinions, Nile is a millenial, Slice of Life, Team as Family, and a bit of a troll</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:46:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>995</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25788457</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KestralWatcher/pseuds/KestralWatcher</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Joe doesn’t move, and Nile can almost feel his eyes narrow behind his sunglasses. “What the hell is this?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>She doesn’t quite understand the question. “You said to get something that would carry all our gear and still blend in.”</i>
</p><p>Joe shouldn't have let Nile pick the rental car, then.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>saving space [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1870753</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>466</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>engine power</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I meant for this series to go in chronological order, but then this ate my brain this morning. No clue where it fits. Canon compliant for the film, but is a bit hand-wavy about the credit stinger.</p><p>No beta, everything that lives will eventually die.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first few jobs are small-scale, places around Europe they can reach in under a day and then return to the Italian safe house when finished. Mostly clearing out gang-related activity in smaller towns, or securing safe passage for migrant families, or in one memorable case, recovering literal crown jewels from one of the countries Nile had never heard of before joining up with this team.</p><p>“It’s not always like this,” Nicky says in a confessional tone on a grocery run in Denmark. “Copley has sent us more involved jobs, but we’d rather you settle into a different dynamic than what you’re used to from the military.”</p><p>Nile hears what he leaves unspoken. That Andy’s mortality weighs heavily on them, and they’d all prefer not race into a hail of bullets before they need to.</p><p>Andy does not join them when they take their first extended mission on another continent. An organization of <em>coyotes</em> is leaving too many dead in their wake rather than provide the promised safe passage into the United States. They fly into Albuquerque, all the while giving Nile a crash-course in Spanish beyond her hazy memories of high school language classes. A weight she had not realized she carried lifts from Nile’s shoulders the moment they spill into the terminal. English, but in the familiar flat accent of <em>American</em>, swirls around Nile. For once, her skin color is nothing to be remarked on by idle passersby in Belarus or Poland.</p><p>It’s not Chicago. They won’t go anywhere near Chicago for decades, at the very least. She’ll take it anyway.</p><p>The guys leave first to take a taxi to the storage center where they’d shipped their gear ahead of time. She has time to kill, so Nile treats herself to a greasy slice from La Trattoria, away from Nicky’s clipped, affronted Italian. It’s not <em>home</em>—but it’s still closer to home than anything she’s eaten in Italy, despite how delicious it always was.</p><p>Iced latte in hand, not as much of a novelty but still a treat to order in English, she makes her way to the shuttle stand that will take her to the car rental center. They’re only driving as far as El Paso, where they’ll turn the vehicle in and meet up with Copley’s contact. Safer to fly into and out of completely separate locations (they’ll leave from Tucson).</p><p>Picking up the car, she’s nothing more than a young woman on her first solo business trip. She finds the local R&amp;B station, relishes in the comforting flow of the afternoon DJ voices, and plugs the storage center address into her smartphone. Driving is familiar. The highway signs are familiar. The burnished landscape with mountains in the distance is a little too familiar after Afghanistan, but with enough differences not to bother her. Especially once she spots the hot air balloons.</p><p>Nile pulls up in front of the storage center, where Nicky and Joe wait with bags and a small footlocker. “Hey, boys! Going my way?”</p><p>Nicky laughs at her false flirtation as he hefts a pack toward the hatchback trunk when Nile pops it open. Joe doesn’t move, and Nile can almost feel his eyes narrow behind his sunglasses. “What the hell is this?”</p><p>She doesn’t quite understand the question. “You said to get something that would carry all our gear and still blend in.”</p><p>“It’s a fucking Prius.”</p><p>Nicky pulls Joe’s backpack from him and tosses it in the car. “Get in the car, Joe.” He claims shotgun, rolling his eyes at Nile once in the safety of the vehicle.</p><p>Joe’s grumbles grow fainter as he drops into the car. Nile pulls away from the curb and heads for the gas station she’d passed. Four-hour road trips needed road trip snacks. She recognizes occasional Italian phrases, such as “sewing-machine engine” and “battery with wheels.” Her giggles only prompt Joe to raise his voice and really dig into the object of his scorn until she and Nicky are near tears when they leave him in the vehicle at the gas station.</p><p>“Didn’t realize Joe was such a car snob,” Nile says as she joins Nicky at the register with their goods.</p><p>He tilts his head, his now-familiar expression of figuring out how to explain decades, centuries of shared experience to their new companion. “He embraced motor vehicles.” Nicky says this in Italian as the cashier rings them up. The young woman’s eyes widen in surprise at the different language, but not in recognition, so he continues. “Loves the speed. Loves the, ah, engine power.” A flush creeps up from beneath the neck of his t-shirt, prompting another laugh from Nile.</p><p>She’ll hold on to that tidbit for later teasing when Nicky is her target.</p><p>When they return to the car, Nile starts slow. Uses her most open, innocently curious voice to ask about how engines work, when they learned to drive. Whether either of them has a particular dream car. Money was certainly no barrier (she’s seen a few of their bank account totals), but lifestyle is. Even this 2018 Prius is leagues beyond the battered Fiat they keep at the Italy house. Joe launches into a lecture about why the best supercar is the McLaren, breaking to allow Nicky to confess his interest in a particular Maserati (an Italian brand, of course).</p><p>“What about you, Nile?” Nicky asks before Joe can once again dominate the conversation that mostly revolves around insulting the poor, adequate Prius he is forced to ride in. “Ever had a dream car?”</p><p>“I’m not that much of a car person. Mostly just thought about what I might like once I got out of the service and settled in one place.” She glances in the rearview mirror at Joe before she continues. “I really like the latest Tesla models, though.”</p><p>Nile does not expect the handful of M&amp;Ms that pelt her from the back seat, but she knows that she absolutely deserves it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>1. Full disclosure: I adore the Tesla Model Y I got back in June. The spouse has had a Tesla Model 3 for about 2 years. We have drunk the Tesla cool-aid and it is delicious. (Though we definitely referred to my previous Honda Civic Hybrid as the "sewing-machine engine.")</p><p>2. I'm working on the sword fic, and there will also be at least two others (maybe 3) in this series beyond that. Spouse can yell at me about book 7 all he wants; I'm not under contract for it yet.</p><p>3. Finally got my hands on the first <i>The Old Guard</i> trade today, and I'm so excited to read it this afternoon.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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